Title: Island Gallery West presents Shirley Rush Dean, the Featured Artist for September — “Etchings and Integrated Watercolors”

Dates: Thursday, September 1 – Friday, September 30, 2022

This show is a retrospective of work done during the mid 1900s at the Longboat Key Art Center
in an ongoing etching class with Jean Blackburn.

It was an experimental and labor-intensive process. Each painting combined three to four etchings printed on dampened watercolor paper with the watercolor added after the etchings were successfully printed and dried. If any of these coordinated images were destroyed, the whole project went down. 

Shirley holds a Master’s Degree in Fine Art in painting and art history from American University in Washington, D.C., and a B.A. in Art Education from the University of Maryland where she taught Design, Drawing and Color Theory for 20 years and lectured in Design at the Corcoran School of Art in Washington, D.C.

Before moving to Florida she created a 2-story ceramic mural on a public building in Bethesda, MD. In Florida, she turned from oil painting to watercolor because of the brilliant colors in the local scenes and was a Signature Member of the FL Suncoast Watercolor Society. Now she works mainly in acrylics. Shirley has received numerous awards and her work is in hundreds of collections nationally and internationally. 

Meet the artist! Shirley will be in the gallery on Wednesday, September 7,
from 10 am to 5 pm — when you will have a chance to learn about her inspiration and she
can to explain her unique process.

Island West Gallery is located at 5368 Gulf Drive in Holmes Beach, Trolley Stop 15, on Anna Maria Island. Gallery hours are 10 am to 5 pm, Tuesday through Sunday.
Visit www.islandgallerywest.com or call 941-778-6648 for updates about the art and 30 member artists of the gallery.